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Friday, January 2, 2009

1.)Set your log duration to 1 day. Works wonders! Normally, the call log list defaults to 30 days, but that’s completely unnecessary, at least from our speed point of view.

The method: Open up the Log application, hit options (left softkey), and select the Settings option. Change the Log duration to (optimally) 1 day, or you can try 10 days. Either way, it should give you a noticeable speed increase.

2.)Use the Edit key to select multiple entries. Here’s a little known tip that I found out quite accidentally: when browsing a list of markable items, hold down the Edit key and use the directional keys to mark (check) multiple items quick and easily. Really handy when you want to delete a lot of text messages, for example, or when you want to add pictures to an album. Unfortunately, due to the way it was programmed, the Edit key doesn’t individually mark an item when pressed once - you need to keep it held down and just use the arrow keys to select items.

3.)Use keypad shortcuts when browsing the Menu. Whether your Menu is in grid or list mode, you can use the numerical keypad to quickly jump to an item. It’s easy to see with the grid option enabled - each key corresponds to the item that’s on the menu (12 items, 12 keys). So if you wanted to open the application in the bottom right corner, just hit the # (pound) key. Note that accessing menu items with this method actually executes the application or folder, instead of just selecting the item.

On a similar note, some phones have Icon Animation on by default - this adds a 3D “twisting” effect to your Theme icons. It doesn’t work with custom application icons, and is generally pretty useless. Turn it off by hitting the menu key -> Options -> Icon Animation.

4.)Go through text messages faster with Nokia Conversation. Conversation is an interface extension cooked up in Nokia’s Beta labs that lets you read text messages by sender, instead of some huge jumbo list of texts. Another benefit: you can also delete by sender, which is great for cutting people out of your life!Once you’ve installed the Nokia Contacts Support Services Package and Nokia Conversation, you can access the extension by going to Contacts and hitting theright arrow key.

5.)Keypad shortcuts work on the Clock application too. This will probably save you a grand total of one, maybe two keystrokes. In the pre-installed Clock application, typing in a number key at the default screen creates a new Alarm with the hour already filled in.

That’s all.

6.)The multimedia menu: disable everything. There’s a wealth of useless options when it comes to the Multimedia Menu. Custom background images, imgae effects, “menu sounds”, and start-up animation. Shut everything off for maximum speed. The background image option should be set to Graphics -> Themes, which should just display the current theme’s default background instead of loading another one.

Honestly though, the multimedia menu always seems to be one of the slowest things ever.

7.)Finally, keep your phone’s firmware updated! All right, that was a cheap one. But seriously, sometimes Nokia actually improves the user interface a bit - take the latest N95 firmware, for example, which speeds up the Gallery by removing the mean bug that caused the gallery menu to appear for a second or two before (slowly) sliding off the screen.